At least 36 people have died, when a bus swerved off the road and plunged into a deep gorge in northern India on Monday.
The bus, said to be poorly maintained and overcrowded, was carrying around 60 people, and more than 20 have been injured, according to a senior state government official.
The state’s chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said rescue teams were working to quickly evacuate the injured passengers to nearby hospitals and that authorities have been instructed to airlift those seriously hurt.
Television footage showed parts of the bus mangled and destroyed as it lay overturned on a rocky slope, close to a stream.
Vineet PalHe, another official in the state, said the state government has opened an investigation into the accident and that preliminary information suggested the dilapidated bus skidded before tumbling down a 60 meter- (200-foot-) -deep gorge.
India has some of the highest road death rates in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and injured annually. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.
